Ashley Flowers

His cousin Catherine thought that it might have been dyslexia, but it didn't affect his social functioning or the way he moved through the world.

He and Dawn had just celebrated their one-year wedding anniversary the month before, though they'd been together for years before that.

And from what investigators were told, it appeared to be a happy, affectionate relationship.

The two didn't have a ton of time to spend together.

Tom worked nights, Dawn days.

But that actually was about to change.

Until then, the main time that they had together was on the weekends, and then that window of time on weekdays after Dawn got home and before Tom left.

That's when they would eat dinner and watch their favorite shows together.

Exactly what they were doing on Monday, September 30th.

Investigators talked to those who knew the couple, family members and friends, especially their closest friends, Amy and Dave Baranek.

The Baronics hung out with the Mathers all the time, going out to bars on the weekends, staying home and playing cards.

They'd known each other for a long time and were extremely close.

I mean, Dave had even been Tom's best man at their wedding.

And both Amy and Dave said that the couple seemed happy.

And every time they were together, they were playing around like five-year-olds, wrestling with each other.

And Don's brother told deputies that they were constantly kissing in public.

But despite everyone saying the couple was picture-perfect and happy, there was something about it that investigators just didn't completely buy early on.

They couldn't disprove anything anyone was saying, but it was the things Dawn was saying and doing that made them suspicious, starting all the way back on the night that Tom died.

When police began collecting statements from neighbors, EMTs, and friends who had responded to the house where Dawn had found refuge, they all seemed to have had encounters with Dawn that they felt were awkward or strange considering what had just unfolded in her home.

Investigators know that shock and trauma can scramble language, distort time, and fracture memory.